00:00What headline would you write about your own life?
00:06You didn't have to like her, but you'll never forget her.
00:09Ooh, even in the voice as well!
00:13Because you know, I know I'm Marmite. It's funny because when Netflix were doing the
00:18documentary they did a survey on me and it was something like 89% of women liked me and
00:2367% of men didn't, er, did like me, so that meant that 30% didn't, which says a lot
00:29about men. But then when it asked them, would you like to be a friend, it was something
00:33like 90% said yes and I'm thinking, so you don't like me and you want to be my friend.
00:37I think it's, I think it's your, it's not necessary for people to like you as long as
00:42you are fair and honest and are a friend to those in need. I know what it was like to
00:48be considered that tough woman, but it had to be done. I had to break the mould. I had
00:54to say, listen to us. My job is not, not to report on the WI or the fluffy dog stories.
01:00My job is to be out there, you know, on picket lines, to be outside Crown courts, to fight
01:06as I did with the, with the story of Peter Sutcliffe, for women's voices to be, to be
01:11heard. So if that makes me tough along the way, I've no regrets.
01:16What's your life's motto?
01:20I think, I think my life's motto was given to me as a young girl by my father, never
01:26look backwards. It's not the direction you're travelling in. And if you live your life like
01:32that with no regrets, yes, there are, everybody has in their lives things that they wish had
01:37gone differently. Some are catastrophic, some are just little niggles, but there's nothing
01:41we can do about them. So if we plan that tomorrow we are moving forward, then we're going in
01:48the right direction. And, you know, I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't
01:53know what I'll be doing in a year's time, five years time, however long I've got left.
01:58But I do believe in the possibility that it's not over until it's over.
02:06What impact has Yorkshire had on your life?
02:09I am Yorkshire. I am Yorkshire, you know, cut me in two and we'll say that like the
02:14stick of rock. But actually what Yorkshire has taught me is the stories I've covered
02:21from the miners' strike, and then the communities that were left after the miners' strike,
02:26to the, you know, to the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe, to the Bradford City disaster, to Hillsborough,
02:32have taught me the resilience that is Yorkshire. The fact that we don't cry easily, we cry
02:40in secret. And that is, to me, our strength, but sometimes our weakness as well. Sometimes
02:47we are so stoic that we don't give in to emotion. And I've learned that I've always, I've always
02:55been tough. And I know that people have watched me on the television, and I know I've walked
03:00into a room and people have been scared of me. And that makes me sad, because I was determined
03:06to ask the question that you, as a viewer, felt needed asking. And if that makes me tough,
03:13so be it, then that was my job. But it might read Yorkshire, but like all Yorkshire, cut
03:22us and we bleed. You know, underneath that tough exterior are life lessons about how
03:28tough it is to be up here, how tough it has been in the past, how tough it is in some
03:34communities now. So cut us and we bleed. But we'll never show you.
03:40Phrase, the best thing about Yorkshire is...
03:45The best thing about Yorkshire, definitely, it's people. We are chippy. We don't allow
03:54anybody to put us down. Otherwise, you will see that we carry not just a chip, but a sack
03:58of potatoes. But we are warm, we are giving, we are interesting. We are so dry, our sense
04:07of humour, that people don't understand us. And we are so proud of our roots and our identity.
04:14You know, anywhere in the world, people might say they come from England. We say we come
04:20from Yorkshire. And you know what, there's something about the difference, the big cities,
04:26the industrial revolution, the wide moors like we're in Haworth at the moment, or the
04:31North York moors, or the rugged coastline that makes us tough. We're a tough breed.
04:37And you know what, you can't keep us down. Well, not for long.
04:41What's your favourite Yorkshire saying?
04:44No such thing as can't.
04:48Where's your best place to eat and drink in Yorkshire?
04:51I love the old post office. I love the star at Hairham, which is Michelin star, which is really, really, really, really posh.
04:59And the only reason I do that is because, you know, I know Andrew really well. I was there the first week he opened.
05:04My mum and dad went the first week he opened. And that's in Hairham and it's very near Rosedale.
05:09But you know where I think my favourite places are? My favourite places are good old Bradford curry houses.
05:15You cannot be, you know, where it literally is, you have to ask for a knife because you use your chapati to scoop things up.
05:22And, you know, there's an abundance of flavours and there's an abundance of different cultures from Southeast Asia,
05:29from India, from Pakistan, from Bangladesh, from Kashmir, you know, and also Malaysia and Turkey and Lebanon.
05:37Anything with spice and therefore it would have to be Bradford, my home city.
05:42What's your favourite Yorkshire grub?
05:47I would say fish and chips, but, which it is, it's fish, but Whitby crab, Whitby crab.
05:58Because I don't eat chips anymore because, you know, I've got a tendency to put a lot of weight on.
06:02But if you said to me, here is some Whitby haddock, not cod.
06:08You know why not cod? Because my granny used to say there were worms in it.
06:11I still don't know whether that's true, but that's what she used to say to me.
06:14But Whitby crab was to me the epitome of luxury.
06:20My mum used to let me go to the little stalls on Whitby.
06:24We used to go to Whitby every year for holidays and used to stay on my uncle's farm in Lastingham near Rosedale.
06:30And my treat was being able to go to the cockle stall and buy a dressed crab and it still tastes as good.
06:38Where's your favourite place to go in Yorkshire?
06:41Two. One we're in it, Howarth, which is where for me the story of the Brontes really began my passion for writing,
06:50but also for equality and inclusion and self-belief and determination.
06:56But the other will have to be where my mum was born, where I'm lucky enough to have a house,
07:01which is Rosedale Abbey, which is right in the middle of the North York Moors,
07:05which has no mobile phone signal, which you can switch off and be at one with yourself.
07:11Because I think that that is what we are lacking in life, quietness.
07:17And when you've no mobile phone, yes, OK, I can connect it to the internet.
07:21Suddenly you have to become aware of yourself, your feelings,
07:25and you're not reliant on your phone to tell you how you should be thinking.
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